[Lime Green Mouse]

So, I guess I should show them off! Not that they're anything really special, they're what I'm starting with, ha! If anyone can help me out with what exactly to call their coats or colors, that would be awesome. I'm still pretty bad at identifying different coat colors, and how to tell long hair from "angora" or whatev. Pictures ahoy!

This is a buck I just bought today, he's really shiny, but I can't tell if that's special or just a healthy coat, heh.

This is the other buck I bought today. I was only going to get one, but he had such long hair that I couldn't resist him.

These are my weanlings from a recent litter between a longhaired REW buck and a longish-haired white mouse with a grey bottom and black eyes:

This is the litter after being licked by my boyfriend, lol. I tried to tell him it wasn't sanitary, but apparently, they're too cute not to lick.

Sorry if I posted too many pictures!

 

[EmtheFishLady]

Awesomely cute!

 

[moustress]

What cuties; they do have very nice thick coats. Are you keeping the two bucks you just bought together? If they were in the same tank at the store, they might do OK together, but if so keep an eye on them for signs of trouble.

 

[Jack Garcia]

The first is a poor (mealy) blue or lilac. His coat is either a poor standard-coat (a bit too long) or poor angora (a bit too short); it's hard to tell. How old is he? If he's young, as he ages, it might even out more one way or the other.

The black and white one is a recessive-marked black angora with very short hair for an angora, but it's a bit too long to be a poor standard-coat. A few years ago, when I was just beginning mice again, almost all of my original petstore mice had this kind of short angora coat and I didn't even realize it until they had babies and the babies had longer coats than the parents.

And the babies are really cute. I mean, recessive marked agouti angoras. The solid white ones are likely recessive marked mice who are all one big white spot.

 

[Jack Garcia]

Also, I forgot: the difference between longhair and angora is subtle and confusing and involves the length of guard hairs compared to non-guard hairs. Suffice it to say that in the US, the vast majority of mice with a longer coat are genetically angora.

To confuse matters, though, both work as simple Mendelian recessives, and the words "angora" and "longhair" seem to be used pretty interchangeably to mean either one. When people show me their mice and ask me "Are they angora or longhair?" I usually tell them "yes."

 

[Lime Green Mouse]

What cuties; they do have very nice thick coats. Are you keeping the two bucks you just bought together? If they were in the same tank at the store, they might do OK together, but if so keep an eye on them for signs of trouble.

I only brought them home tonight, so they're in the one cage together until I can run by Wally world later tonight and pick up one more cage. I'd only planned on buying one They ignore each other for now, but are definitely not rooming together for long at all.

Jack - Thanks so much! I was having a lot of trouble trying to figure out what to call the grey one. He's very young, or at least he looks young, and had just arrived at the pet store with a bunch of other young mice. It's hard to be certain without knowing the breeder, but he looks and acts like a young mouse. I'll let you know if he grows into that coat of his.